Main Themes & Plots

[Drew]

The Powers That Be

For as long as Angel has been in LA, The Powers That Be have helped him and guided him. Some might say they used him.
The primary goal of The Powers is that they want balance. They want to keep the fight between good and evil going because that is what gives them their power. It's what keeps them on top. They make us fight so that the hierarchy stays in place.
The problem is Angel has upset this balance. The Powers are now threatened. Angel has made it so that the beings on Earth actually have an unknown upper hand over The Powers. The conditions are now such that humanity and demons and Angel can rid themselves of the influence of The Powers That Be.
The Powers, of course, do not wish this.
Their plan is to use Tobit and the Demon Shelter to incite hatred towards humans (by ensouled demons), eventually starting a war with humans. That's how they are going to restore the balance. That’s how they are going to stay on top.

[Drew]

Chaos

Angel has upset the balance in a most dramatic way. And everyone and everything is basically trying to compensate - all in their own unique and terrifying ways. Even the very universe itself is trying to adjust.
And it is doing it through chaos - through entropy.
The chaos this season is working on a fundamental level. Demons and Humans are taking on characteristics of one another. They are blending, becoming more alike. The chaos is creating uniformity between demons and humans.
This is the reason Fred's soul begins to re-emerge in Illyria, blending Fred and Illyria until both will be destroyed.

It has not yet been decided exactly how this will manifest itself on a wide-spread basis. For the most part, many episodes this season will be exploring just how similar demons and humans can be in a sort of metaphorical way. For example, we will have an ep where there is a female serial killer, and we will also have an ep where we have humans losing their souls (but not dying - as a result of the fundamental entropy).

[Drew]

Grace's Plan/Good Apocalypse

Before reading this, read Grace’s Character Bio in Approved Ideas or in the Characters section under “Grace”.

Grace rebelled against the other Powers and made herself human so that she could help Angel move the world towards this Good Apocalypse. She is the one that made Angel take on the Senior Partners. She is the one that caused the Chaos.

Basically, the point behind the Good Apocalypse is to say: “The fight will never end. But here’s a way we can make it a little more bearable. It should signify ‘the end’ of one way of life - of relying on the intervention of these Powers that don’t even live in the same dimension as us. And it should signify the beginning of a way of life where all people and demons on Earth have the Power to dictate their own futures and their own choices.

Since Angel upset this balance, The Powers are now threatened. Angel has made it so that the beings on Earth actually have an unknown upper hand over The Powers. The conditions are now such that humanity and demons and Angel can rid themselves of the influence of The Powers That Be.
That is what the Good Apocalypse is increasingly looking like: ridding the earth of the influence of the PTB.

[Drew]

In the middle of the ARC II of the season (Arc II is ep. 9-16), Tobit will suddenly realize that Grace is the rogue Power and therefore a threat to The Power's plan.
Through his link to The Powers he will inform them of his realization. After possibly punishing him a little for not realizing this earlier, The Powers will do something about it. . .
. . .A few episodes later a killer agent from the Powers will show up after having received a vision that Grace is a danger. Angel prevents him from killing her.
]

[Drew]

[shadow=red,left,300]DEMON SHELTER[/shadow]

The Demon Shelter is where Angel, Spike, and Illyria end up after the great alley battle.
Tobit is the director of the Shelter. The Powers That Be put him in charge there for a reason. They also brought Angel there for a reason.
They want Angel to work there.

Many things are done at the Demon Shelter, many needs met:

1) Food
2) Clothing
3) Mystical

Other things are done to buck up the unfortunate demons' spirits:

1) Job training
2) Play games
3) open mic poetry reading
4) guest storytelling
5) Musical performance
6) Holiday parties
7) Puppet show
8) Drug Treatment
9) Medical clinic (probably pretty low-tech)

The Shelter has a Shrine room - a place where demons can go to worship whatever God or mystical presence it is that they bow down to.
Tobit uses the room communicate with The Powers. Although he can do it anywhere he pleases, he gets the best reception in there.

There is also the above-mentioned medical clinic, a Common Area with tables and chairs for eating - and a TV. There is a kitchen. There are offices. There is the sleeping area.

At the front entrance is a Soul Detector - he is a demon that can tell whether or not you have a soul. IF you do, you can enter. If you don't, something bad happens.

[Joss]

The Powers that Be are the Big Bads this season. They are trying to restore the balance that Angel upset at the end of Season 5 as it is this balance that allows them to remain on top of things and in control of everything.

Angel and Grace on the other hand, don't want balance, rather they say: "Fuck balance, let's make things more bearable for us. BUT if things were to balance, that balance should be up to us, not some jackass Powers from another dimension."

[Drew]

Just a refresher on our season:

1) What are our season's main themes?
2) What is the character of Angel going through this season?
3) What are the other characters going through this season?

1) We've got balance as one of the main themes. The upset of and the reestablishment of.
Balance has been destroyed by Angel.
Now The Powers are trying to balance things by splitting everything in two - like they always have - Good and Evil.
The Universe is trying to balance things by mixing everything, making everything homogenous. Entropy. No more good and evil - everything gray.

There’s also the theme of homelessness for our main characters. Lack of home and purpose.

2) Angel feels like he is no longer needed in this world - in this fight. He feels like the Fight is over. And that is what he lived for. It was his existence. Fighting. Now - what power does he have left?

Likewise, he has no home in this world. Episode Four will show that he cannot keep Angel Investigations going anymore. The world has changed. He cannot stay at the Hyperion. Wolfram & Hart is gone. He now lives and works in a Homeless Shelter for Demons. He has no home, no purpose, no place in this world.

Angel has sacrificed everything. What more is there? This, ironically, disturbs and frightens him. It means that he really never will achieve Shanshu. He’s stuck.

And since he will never become human, he is no longer fighting for anything for himself - personally. It's just selflessness now. And eternal selflessness - always fighting for everyone but himself - is really frelling exhausting.

And again, since he will never become human, his fate is open - a mystery. Frightening because it may be unexceptional, boring, run-of-the-mill. A champion without the fame. This of course sounds depressing, but really it leaves the door open for Angel to take hold of his own destiny and steer it in the direction he wants.
Hell, theoretically (and I'm not saying we should do this), Angel could still find a way to make himself human - but he still wouldn't be the vampire w/ a soul the prophecy talks about. Spike could still be that vampire because it says so in a prophecy. But Angel, he can still become human w/o a prophecy to tell him so. The sky's the limit for him.

And since we've got this theme of balance, I think we need to have some stuff about his vampire and human halves.

3)

Spike...um some stuff will happen with Spike. Grace will think he is the vampire w/a soul that she is looking for. But then she'll realize it is Angel because Angel is not fighting for a prize. His Fight is more pure.
And this may happen in ep. 5 or it may happen further down the line - as Grace believing Spike is the one she seeks might lead very well into Angel's depression.
But once that's all sorted out, Spike will feel like he is living in Angel's shadow.

Illyria - The balance theme isn't exactly subtle in her. The Chaos will blend Illy and Fred. They'll be split. And linked mortally and perhaps mentally as well. One dies, the other dies. They are symbiotic. But neither will be Good or Evil. Both will very much be living in the gray areas.

Andrew - Yeah, he's learning to be his own man. He still needs someone to tell him what to do. He'll be moving beyond that. Kind of like Angel & Co. realizing they don't need The Powers telling them what to do.

Tobit - He is a puppet - literally. But he doesn't know it. Most of his body is dead and the Powers restored it to him. But it means they own those parts. They can control them. They can make him fight even if he doesn't want to. They can make him kill.
They are even in his head, but he can still fight them there.
He hates humans for what they did to him when they found out he was half-demon.
His fate will most likely be tragic.

Grace - Her mind is chaos. A mish-mash of memories that she can't place in time. She, like Angel, has lost her mission. She feels powerless. But as she puts the pieces together, she realizes she does have a purpose...a purpose that we are trying to figure out still...

Now we need to look at our season and ask ourselves, how does this all come together?

[Inyan]

Drew, you forgot about the Kid in the well... tsk tsk, must i do everything around here